Holiday decorating and then some...

In spite of the still pink hallway (I have major color-choice paralysis), I've been busily trying to make our house more homey and put our stamp on it. I really enjoyed decorating for the holidays this year. But it did give me a sizable clearance-stuff-for-next-year wishlist. :)

Entry way. This is the first year I've done up my entry. I don't have a mantle, except for in the playroom, so this is kind of my "mantle" decor.  I love the Holy Family figure we have there. Its actually my only "adult" navitivy... must fix that. My in-laws brought it back from the Domincan Republic for us. It stays out year-round... but not on this table year-round. Behind the nativity I have 3 hurricane vases (the dollar store hand-made kind!) filled with gold & silver beads, candles, gold and silver mini-ornaments and gold & silver winter berry decor picks. I tied fishing line to some ball ornaments and taped them to the back of my mirror, the filled a glittery leaf bowl (a wedding gift that I love and have decided will no longer live in a box in the basement) with more ornaments. The tree and the little season's greetings sign were Target clearance scores. The "print" is a free printable found here. I printed it at home and stuck it in a frame and mat that we already had... without even removing the regular picture that lives in that frame. :) Next year I might use some garland & lights on here... we'll see.

 

Stair case. Please ignore the mess on the floor... I was still mid-decorating when this picture got taken. I wrapped & swagged the garland around the banister, strung it with lights (half of which burned out before Christmas... grr) and hung our stockings. Yes, there are only 4 there. Yes, Lindsey does have a stocking that matches, but her doesn't have a ribbon to hang it by and I never managed to go that 5 minute task this season. And I can't have any more kids, because I only have 5 of these stockings and I love them. After the stockings were hung I decorated the with pine cone decor picks, white star ornaments and more ball ornaments in 3 sizes (I might have bought a LOT of those last year or the year before on clearance... I think they were something like 25 cents per tube and I intended to make topiaries for my porch with them. Oops... at least they're getting used now!). I really like how this turned out. 

 Our tree. Its hard to see, since its dark and all lights, but I'm not a tree-prefectionist anyway. Once the lights are on I'm so over it (because I am a lights perfectionist). My kids help a lot, and its pretty bare on the bottom 18 inches, but it looked nice. We have a separate kids tree in the play room where they get to use all the ornaments that I'm over for my "pretty" tree. Anyway, I love how the tree looked in the very late hours of Christmas Eve. Oh... and does anyone want to share where they got the tree topper they love? I really want a star that lights up, but I haven't found one I like much yet.

On a non-holiday decorating note: we had family picture taken in late September and a few days before Christmas I FINALLY got our portrait gallery up. The clock in the center Brian got me for Christmas two years ago. I've always loved it, but didn't know where to put it. 

I like it, but I kind of think it needs something in the low corners... what do you think?

Lindsey's First Birthday

I spent weeks in denial that it was happening. Lindsey couldn't be turning 1. Simply not possible. She's my baby and she's staying that way, right?

Not really... *sigh*

Lindsey turned 1 and I have accepted it. Here's a few pictures of her big day:

 She stated with some classic 1-year-old activities, like emptying the DVD cabinets...

 Then moved onto drinking her real milk for a cup (for the record, she thinks cups are over-rated)...

 and other general cuteness (check out those fangs!)...

 After dinner came the cake. I really wanted to do a cute owl cake, but that just didn't happen. Oh well... 

 At first she thought we were crazy when we gave her that big ol' slice...

 Then she figured she'd better taste it before we changed out minds.

 Dainty finger eating was taking way too long, so she grabbed the whole slice... 

 And put it where it would count. :)

 Mmmm... cake!

 And when she was done, she let us know in the usual manner: Grab her cake... 

 Pick it up... 

 and toss it over board. 

Happy birthday, baby girl!

Busy, busy...

My lack of posting lately doesn't mean there's nothing to post about... just that we're too darned busy around here to sit down at the computer uninterrupted for 10 minutes. :) Here's a brief run-down of what we've been doing in the last month or two:

• Rosie Starting work at the YMCA super-part time. 
• Lindsey started walking...
• and had her first birthday (this one gets its own post... soon!)
• We finally had our first snow.
• Brian and Rosie have been busy working on Christmas projects.
• Rosie's been busily trying to turn her sewing room into funcational space rather than barely managed chaos. 
• Ward Christmas Party happened. 
• We decorated for Christmas...
• and got some non-holiday decorating projects done too! 
• And now Christmas is upon us!

So... we've been a LITTLE busy. But Brian's home from work all week, so I'm hoping to get a few things posted soon. :) Stay tuned...